‘L’Avenir’ newspaper director freed

The media watchdog, Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), announced on Friday the release of Joachim Diana Gikupa, director of the daily newspaper ‘L’Avenir’, in Kinshasa following a week’s detention by the Agence nationale de renseignements (ANR), the national intelligence agency of the DRC. He told RSF that he was held in deplorable conditions. “The two first days, I was in a tiny cell with two small holes for ventilation. There was just a foam mattress on the ground and I was not allowed to use the toilet. Afterwards, I was transferred to another cell that was slightly better,” he said. The ANR cells had been officially closed by authorities earlier this year by order of President Joseph Kabila. A lawyer for Gikupa is scheduled to meet with authorities regarding events that transpired. Gikupa was arrested on 14 June by ANR agents for refusing to reveal the identity of a source. RSF noted that Freddy Loseke Lisumbu, the director of ‘La Libre Afrique’ newspaper arrested on 30 May on charges of libel, is still held by the government.